Iconoclast@feddit.uk to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world · 15 days agoWhat's an interesting etymology for a common term?message-squaremessage-square218linkfedilinkarrow-up1230
arrow-up1230message-squareWhat's an interesting etymology for a common term?Iconoclast@feddit.uk to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world · 15 days agomessage-square218linkfedilink
minus-squarepruwyben@discuss.tchncs.delinkfedilinkarrow-up26·15 days agoThis isn’t a common term but it’s something I recently learned that’s kind of funny - the country Timor-Leste is named from the Malay word timur, meaning “east”, and the Portuguese word leste, meaning “east”. So it’s literally “East East”.
minus-squareAA5B@lemmy.worldlinkfedilinkarrow-up11·15 days agoThat’s bizarre …… during the independence violence the news always refers to it as East Timor, so it would have been more literally east east
minus-squarewieson@feddit.orglinkfedilinkarrow-up2·14 days agoHow is one language more literal than another?
minus-squareAA5B@lemmy.worldlinkfedilinkarrow-up1·14 days agoThink of the language like units in a math problem. “East” (English) is more literally “East” Than “Leste”( Portuguese), even if it translates to the same If you make an analogy with temperature: 212°F is more literally “212” than 100C even if they are both the boiling point of water
This isn’t a common term but it’s something I recently learned that’s kind of funny - the country Timor-Leste is named from the Malay word timur, meaning “east”, and the Portuguese word leste, meaning “east”. So it’s literally “East East”.
That’s bizarre …… during the independence violence the news always refers to it as East Timor, so it would have been more literally east east
How is one language more literal than another?
Think of the language like units in a math problem.
“East” (English) is more literally “East”
Than “Leste”( Portuguese), even if it translates to the same
If you make an analogy with temperature: